In The Eye Of The Beholder
by The Sky Pirate Girl
Summary: This story will never be told because there is no one left to tell it (and even if there is, these few people are sworn to silence; should the truth be revealed the whole of Konoha will end up in chaos). In which Kakashi ends up betraying the village after the war and Sakura has a hard time dealing with it. KakaSaku.


REUPLOAD.

Title: **But in the darkness I have no name**  
Words: ~15 000

**Summary**: This story will never be told because there is no one left to tell it (and even if there is, these few people are sworn to silence). After all, should the truth be revealed the whole of Konoha will end up in chaos.

In which Kakashi ends up betraying the village after the war and Sakura has a hard time dealing with it.

* * *

_**"Mm, that's not quite right, is it? In fact, the little details are by far the most important."  
**_**― Sherlock Holmes**

* * *

_– Midnight's Tale_–

The night has never looked so black - black are the mountains, the monument, the whole Konoha. Sakura finds herself deeming it fit - at its core the village is dead and rotting. But now, the whole world seems such too.

She sighs and waits. Always waits.

Finally he comes.

'He' has never been just one person, but she'd take whatever she can get.

In the darkness, she barely recognizes who 'he' is. Is it her brother? Is it her enemy? Or possibly, is it-?

Her trained eyes see gray. She prefers gray to black. She prefers it to yellow and to blue too.

She runs to him and checks him for wounds with her chakra. Gashes, internal bleedings, anything she can find. It seems though, that someone else has already healed the most of it.

"When this war is over, I am going to defect from Konoha," he says bitterly.

She shakes her head in the darkness and doesn't bother to say anything. For some time now, he says this after every battle.

Something is dying inside this man - so broken by grief and betrayal and anger - and she worriedly searches him over for any trace of his once so easy-going, slightly arrogant nature. None. She finds none. But then again, war is not a good time for jokes and smiles.

She herself has let something die within her, something that could not be healed or repaired.

"I'm serious. When this is over, I am leaving." She looks down.

"I'll miss you. " Her voice is guarded. If _that_ ever happens, she _will_ be strong enough. She will be. She has already been through so much.

"Then come with me."

"You know I can't."

He sighs. "Then, stay with me till the time comes." She knows he knows that it is not possible. By morning, by the time the almost elusive light comes again, they will both be fighting again; he - for his enemies' deaths, and she - for her friends' lives. Hurt and heal - both were always an odd pair as that. "Stay with me till the morning dawns," he amends.

_That_ she can do, Sakura thinks as she feels his head fall softly on her lap. She begins tracing circles in his hair, down to his forehead and the delicate features of his uncovered face (what's the use of masks when she is blinded?)

They stay like this for hours- they don't, can't, _won't_ fall asleep. And then darkness begins to recede, to run before the yellow light in horror and she _sees him_.

"If," he begins again, sits up and looks at the sunrise. His back is turned to her and she cannot see his face anymore. "If, when this is over - and we're both - then- then..." His elocution has been neglected at present, but she understands all-the-same.

He knows better than to hope yet. Hope is not the best advisor on the battlefield. But morning light always made them stupid enough as that.

But, _oh_, if...

The blackness has ended and there is no more time for ifs. It is time for them to part ways; he - to destruction, and she - to life.

Because she can only wait for _him_ by night. She does not want to see him by day. That would mean...

Sakura breaks her trail of thoughts and her head hurts from the light. She aches for _his_ arms around her, for the smell of him, for that look in his eyes that leaves her completely struck in the moment, leaves her utterly empty from everything but her desire to _heal_ the brokenness inside of him, to _let_ herself be healed and to simply _be_ with him.

Sakura closes her eyes for a second. When she opens them, there is a spark and determination and she goes to the next wounded shinobi, praying that it would not be a face she loved.

_–Winter's Tale_–

White, pale snow and gray clouds. Possibly also one or two dark ravens in the sky. Sakura is making snow angels, on the winter of her fifteenth year. Shikamaru curses when Chouji 'accidentally' pushes him and Ino laughs at them and berates Chouji for being so childish. Sakura rows over (destroying her snow angel in the process), sits up. Chouji suggests they go to the BBQ bar and the rest of team eight happily oblige. Sakura thinks that Ichiraku's is a dozen times better but says nothing.

As she stands up, she sees a flicker of white, gray and dark but it isn't the scenery. It is Kakashi, who has been avoiding her for quite some time now and she angrily refuses to add the sensei suffix, doesn't see him worthy of it.

Kakashi has rested his hand on a naked tree, as if for support, and looks at her undauntedly. _Bastard_, she thinks but does not let her eyes wander away from him, fearing that if she as much as blinks, he would be gone.

_He is the only one I have left_.

She murmurs something to Ino (does not even recall what it was), Ino most probably nods (she doesn't look at her) and Sakura goes to the stoic, silent tree and the man beneath it.

"Kakashi," she greets and objectively, privately observes that winter in Konoha is _cold_.

"Yo." He waves the porn book in greeting and his visible eye closes in a half-assed attempt to appear smiling. His voice is not as cheerful as she remembers it and for that she is thankful because she has a feeling she would burst and yell and demand answers otherwise.

While going to him, she had not esteemed the awkwardness that would follow after the first two words exchanged.

Her etiquette screams at her to be polite and ask him how he is, her mind tells her that they both know he is not really well (two days ago she has seen him in the hospital, bloody and ripped open after the serial failed Sasuke-retrieval mission).

"Shouldn't you be at the hospital?" she asks. He scratches the back of his head and looks away in discomfort.

"And shouldn't you be training with Tsunade-sama?" Something twitches angrily inside of her.

_He is the only one I have left_. The vulnerable thought distresses her.

"Shishou let me have the day off. I decided to spend it with friends." His murmur of 'ah', rips at her heart offensively and she allows herself to finally tell him what she thinks about him, disregarding a few of the vows she has made to herself - to become mature, assertive, composed and adult-like: "And why the hell are you asking, anyway?" she barks. "You seem dead set on ignoring me, the negligent mentor you are! If I dropped dead right this minute, you'd probably just move on your merry way and find a nicer, corpse-less place to read your porn!" She could go on like this forever - it sure as hell felt nice - but common sense stopped her.

Kakashi is quiet for a while and just as she thinks about returning to Ino and the boys, he replies: "For all it's worth, I'm sorry."

"It's not enough," she states, making a show of turning on her heels and folding her hands. Privately thinks: _it is_.

He does not say anything more, contrary to her expectations and Sakura is suddenly hit with a pang of horror: what if he goes away? What is this was her last chance of speaking with him and she just wasted it because of her stupid ego? She turns back to the tree faster than before and finds that he is still there. She imagines the bastard is smirking beneath that cursed mask of his.

"Sense-!" she yells, angry, but her yell dies in her throat because she has _used the suffix_ again and something about the way he is holding himself makes her think that she has done nothing to prevent his smirk from growing.

It doesn't last long, though.

Expression toned down to half-serious, Kakashi looks towards the barbeque bar and squints at its direction reprehensibly.

"It's a lousy place for a late breakfast, wouldn't you agree, Sakura?" he suddenly remarks.

"Why would you..." she trails off, because she realizes what he means. A smile threatens to escape her lips. Instead she tells him, looking away from him again: "No, I'm having none of that. I'm still angry at you."

"Alright," he sighs and turns away. "I'll go by myself then."

"Wait!" Kakashi turns back towards her. Sakura gives him her first true smile in a very long while and he repays her with one of his own hesitant, real, non-eye-crinkling ones that warms her better than her coat.

_–Time's__Tale_–

"Stay," he breathes. She closes her eyes. "Please. Just this once."

"I can't."

.

When Naruto returns, he is told almost nothing of Kakashi's half-suicidal attempts on finding Sasuke. _Especially_ not of that time when Shikamaru, Hinata and Sakura were sent by a very worried Tsunade to search him after two weeks of no contact what-so-ever.

"So, Sakura-chan," the blond cheerfully says, a week or so after the Kazekage mission. "I just got paid by baa-san... would you go on a date with me?"

Sakura looks around. "Sure, why not?" Her friend looks positively glowing. "But only as friends, you got that!?" His glowing positively ceases.

Of course, Naruto takes her to Ichiraku's and knows not to pester her romantically (moreover, she teaches him via few half-hearted punches and kicks). They have a great time, although Sakura can't help but wryly comment that she really has gotten bored with Ichiraku's and Naruto promises her that their next 'date' would be at her favorite tea shop.

As Naruto bids her goodbye and hugs her, as she goes all the way to her home, Sakura can't help but look around worriedly.

.

The smell of general unpleasantness hits at her nostrils like an unbecoming slap and, pinching her nose, Sakura sends a thank-you prayer to God that she is not Kiba at this moment.

Dark, musty, sweaty, humid. A row of ugly epithets comes to mind.

Sakura walks the lone line of the main corridor of Konoha's prison, ignoring the calls and whistles of the caught missing nin, A- and C-ranked criminals and various suspects for treason.

Her mind is set on the second to last cell.

.

"So, I don't get it," Ino asks her. "How can't Sai not like me? He _did_ say I was the prettiest thing in the world."

Sakura looks at the orchids in the flower shop, sighs for the hundredth time this day as she tries to explain to her friend that Sai doesn't like _anyone_. He doesn't have _feelings_, as of now at least.

"But then, why would he say something like _that_?"

"Ino..."

The door of the shop opens.

"Yo, Ino. Sakura," Kakashi greets.

"Just wait a second, Kakashi-sensei," Ino says and disappears behind the back door.

"Sakura," he tries. Said girl glares at him. "Please,"

"Don't 'please'-me, idiot!" she bursts. "You've been gone for God knows how long, I worry sick about you and I do realize that you're a fully grown jounin and you _can_ take care of yourself, but you obviously haven't found it _worthy_ to call me when you _do_ return and _what kind of a depraved friend are you_?!"

Kakashi smiles sheepishly and scratches the back of his neck. "Sorry." Sakura puffs and looks at him like a bull at red. "You see... today is _that_ day of the year and I just returned from the mission..."

"Oh," is all she says. "Sorry about that. It's just... One more mission with Yamato-taichou and Sai and I swear I'll go nuts."

He looks at her with something between warm affection and amusement.

"Oh, I see," he says. "You missed your old team partner." Sakura squints at him.

"Kak-"

"Kakashi-sensei, here." Ino hands him the usual set of flowers Kakashi always buys on this day.

"Thank you, Ino." He turns his back on them, opens the door and waves a goodbye without turning.

Sakura looks at the scene unfolding before her in indignity.

"You really think you can just slider out like that? Just wait a - ! _Kakashi!_"

Kakashi has gone in the blink of a moment and in a second, Sakura has started after him.

Ino sighs.

"Honestly, Sakura?"

.

She had hoped that this day would never come. The thought itself had seemed stupid, foolish, unthinkable. Childish, really.

At the sight of her, he steps so quickly from the dark, unlit part of the horrid _dungeon_ that her breath catches.

"Kakashi," she chokes. Two meters away from him. "You..."

The man looks at her coldly, heart-snaringly vulnerable and falls on his knees. Sakura rushes to him.

.

Sakura wakes up in the middle of the night because there is sound coming out from her window (she always keeps it open). Feeling a sudden rush of adrenaline, worry and excitement, she hurries to where it is and looks at the man who has already collapsed on her coach.

"How many were they?" she simply asks.

"Too many...?" Sakura frowns at the breaks between the two words. Never much for sharing details, this Kakashi. He winces as she checks him for wounds.

"You should have gone to the hospital, with these wounds of yours," she tells him dryly.

"You know I _hate_ hospitals. You're by far the best medic in Konoha, anyway."

"This is a matter of emergency! I don't have a first aid kit that would fix all of _this_! Have you not noticed all the _blood_?!" She worriedly looks at the wound on his stomach.

"I can feel its absence from my body accurately, thank you very much," he replies, somewhat stiffly.

Sakura helps him stand up, throws his hand over her shoulder and in a blur of a moment, they're both gone.

.

"What are we reduced to?" the man asks bitterly. He weakly presses his head on the bars. "Heroes of war. The traitor and the woman who loves him. You really do have a horrid luck with men, Sakura."

"Shuddup. Fool of a man," she whispers into his mouth, leans into him, and their foreheads touch. His loose unkempt hair clumsily brushes at her face.

"Stay," he breathes.

.

She really doesn't have the time to visit him. She has work to do, friends to appease for not really going out with them because of said work, life to live.

The only time she can afford to see him is once when she has a night shift at the hospital, and only for half an hour. She brings her medical study books and notebooks with her.

Kakashi is in an otherwise unoccupied room, his usual one. Only pretends he's sleeping, the stupid man.

Sakura says nothing, smiles privately to herself and sits next to him. She switches on the night lamp near the armchair and begins reading. Not the best read, really - not some epic fantasy, or hair-rising adventure book, or classical love story - but she sadly cannot afford the time for these anymore.

Around fifteen minutes later, she looks up to where he lays and sees that his dark eyes are set on her.

"Why didn't you wake me up?" Kakashi accuses.

"You weren't sleeping, anyways." Sakura deadpans.

"I thought you were a nurse." They both frown, and she goes to where his file is and opens it. Not even half-way recovered. Sakura is not surprised, having in mind the severity of his wounds and the overuse of the sharingan.

"What poor nurse would want to spend her only break for the night listening to your honestly disturbing snores?" she asks, waving her hand dismissively.

"I do _not_ snore! I was not even asleep!" he chokes self-righteously.

"Yes, you do. When you really _are_ asleep. Do you have any idea how many sleepless nights you've given me, during a mission?"

He winces and looks away. She can swear she hears a mumble of 'I _do not_ snore'.

Sakura sighs and goes to him.

"My break is over now, but I will visit whenever I can." she says, voice purposely strong and clear. "Be more careful the next time, will you?" She rests a hand on his cheek for the briefest of moments, then lets go.

"Alright." She heads for the door. "But Sakura?"

"What?" She does not turn back.

"Next time, bring a blanket. And a basket... And food." Kakashi says, as an afterthought.

"Why?"

"I really can't stay bounded to this bed much longer. I'd go half-mad!" he wines. "At least take me to a picnic outside?"

Sakura can't stop herself from smiling. "Of course."

.

"Stay," he breathes. She closes her eyes. "Please. Just this once."

"I can't." Sakura tells him. "I can't just _stay,_ and watch you die. " She stands up. "You'll have to find out a really good way to thank me, when all of this is over."

"Then let's pray I'll be... _alive_ enough to thank you."

The look she gives him can kill weaker men.

"I never do half-assed jobs, Hatake Kakashi. And so help me, you will be _very much_ alive by the end of it all."

_–Meadow's Tale_–

Sakura wakes up in the middle of the night to pee. Honestly, her bladder is killing her these days. And she's not even pregnant - she's not even having any love life what-so-ever. After Sasuke left, she just waits for him to come back, at some little corner of her heart, and pays no attention to the matters of love.

So, feeling quite happily carefree at the moment, she scratches her back and yawns.

And notices that there is a man lying on her coach. Preparing to beat the damned thief into a pulp for breaking into her house, she lunches forward, silent rage twinkling in her eyes-

Oh, wait. The chakra's familiar. It's Kakashi, her quirky friend-once-sensei.

"You can't just decide to crush into other people's homes, Hatake!"

He startles from his nap and looks at her apologetically.

"You and I both know I'm your best friend, Sakura. Might as well take off the masks..." he slurs. "... No, scratch that. I'm not drunk enough to take off mine. Point is, I forgot where my apartment is. See, it's sooo tiny..." He shows her the small space between his index finger and his thumb and squints at it.

Sakura's face is one full of indignity as she realizes his words and recognizes the scent of alcohol in the air.

"You... you're drunk?"

He looks at her oddly. "No, I am just dropping by for a surprise slumber party."

She is actually shocked.

"You drink?" Her voice comes a bit higher than expected.

"Yes, Sakura," Kakashi explains slowly (if a bit unintelligently). "I drink. I fuck. I hurt. I human. Does it surprise you?"

Being put that way, it does.

"You don't have to be so vulgar. It doesn't suit you." After a moment, she asks: "And how do you remember _my_ home?"

He looks thoughtful. "The super-almighty power of friendship?"

"No, really?"

"It's only two streets away from the bar?"

"That's more believable," she says, a bit too loud. Only to be shushed by Kakashi, whose eyes remind her of a kicked puppy. Of Akamaru, actually.

"Okay, sleep it off then, you drunkard. I leave you be."

"Night, Sakura!" he calls after her, as she remembers the main reason why she is awake.

"Night, Kakashi," she says, yawning again. The light coming through the open door of her bedroom illuminates his already sleeping face and with a pang, Sakura realizes something that shocks her stand-still and leaves her breathless:

_I am his friend._

On the next morning, she wakes up quite early, as per usual. It's not even a working day but by now she has grown used to being an early bird and waking up at precisely 6:15 a.m., for some odd reason or other.

As she goes to the kitchen (which isn't precisely separated with the living room), she sees that Kakashi still sleeps. Naturally.

Sakura puts a pot of water on the stove and searches through the cupboards for the cocoa. Hot chocolate with a bit of milk is the only sweet thing she has come to like, after a horrible incident two months ago that included a bit too much of sweets.

As she sips from the lovely beverage from her favorite red mug, Sakura ponders on her plans for the day. Going to the supermarket (it is Sunday and she does not have time to stock during any other day), training with Shikamaru and Lee after lunch, meeting Ino at noon for a study session... And that's it. Sakura sadly muses on her lack of passable social life and the depravation of her party-loving, wild nature.

_Should I buy a book? Do I actually have time for books? But I really miss those wonderful detective series. But training and Tsunade-shishou and studying and missions and all those things don't really allow time for reading. Sigh. If it wasn't for the better pay, I would have remained a genin. And fuck Ino's gibes. And fuck my chances for Kakashi-sensei ever recognizing me as a worthy shinobi._

Speaking of the man, he just begins stirring in her coach, obviously distressed by her sips and gulps.

"Sakura, could you _please_ drink your stuff a bit more quietly?" he grumbles, covering his ears with her pillow.

"Oh, good morning to you too!" she exclaims sarcastically. Kakashi gives up on sleeping, throws the pillow roughly on its place and looks meanly at her.

"Breakfast?" he asks gruffly.

"Breakfast? I thought you were hung-over?"

"I'm not from the weak-stomached drinkers."

"Ah," she says. "Then you wouldn't be from the weak-kneed ones too, because you'd have to prepare your breakfast yourself."

"You're the devil, I tell you."

Sakura hums, continues sipping from her mug and admires the lovely shade of orange of her walls. They are walls that would make Naruto proud .

"Sakura-a!" Kakashi pleads.

"No."

"Be a good friend and make me some eggs, please."

"_No_."

"I'll take the mask off, for you!"

Sakura sighs, irritated.

"You constantly seem to forget that I've seen you without your mask already, Kakashi. During the examinations, remember?"

"I really do always forget." He goes silent for a moment. "Did you drool? I mean, me being so handsome behind it and all, I think even Tsunade forgot to look away for a moment." Sakura pointedly ignores his words. "Fine. I'll starve to death and it will be your fault."

Sakura feels the urge to throw something at him. Who knew that the actual Hatake Kakashi would be so... so... _annoying_?

Never-the-less, she thinks later as she watches him munch his eggs, this moment is just as precious to her as all those other ones with the complete team seven.

"By the way," he suddenly says. "You should keep your window constantly open. Do you have _any_ idea how hard it was to open it while being drunk? What if I fell? What if I was in a mortal danger?"

Sakura glares at him.

"God, my days are so boring!" she sighs, five minutes later. "All I do is study, study, train, work, get dragged by my odd friend Ino to all sorts of horrendous places and then getting nagged by my odd twenty-eight-actually-ten-years-old-in-disguise friend to death."

"... The last two don't sound so boring," Kakashi remarks. "And we could always go to Ichiraku's or our favorite tea shop..."

"And go to Ichiraku's and the Tea Shop!" Sakura adds to the list.

"We could always go on a picnic," he openly suggests. She looks at him as if he's grown two heads. Then thinks on his words.

"Actually, it's not a half bad idea." Then she remembers all the things she has to do today and swears. "But I really can't today. And, as a matter of fact, don't you have an A-ranked mission to attend?" Kakashi nods slowly. "Some other day, then."

"Some other day."

And they clink their mugs as a sign promise.

.

_I moved out today. Mum cried and dad gave me at least two hundred and sixty five advices on how to take care of myself on my own. Of course, they know I'm a __**perfectly capable**__ kunoichi, but that doesn't seem to impress them._

_Tsunade-shishou actually gave me the day off. I was very surprised. For the three weeks I know her, she hasn't shown anything but strictness and dislike towards me (at times I wonder how did she actually pick __**me**__ as her apprentice). Today she gave me one of her precious bottles of sake as a gift for the new home (which is absolutely gorgeous, if a bit small and plain... only as of now, at least)._

_As I moved my things, I saw Kakashi-sensei._

_**Look at me**__, I wanted to yell at him. __**Recognize me for what I am.**_

_He doesn't really know that team 7 had three students, does he? I don't think he ever did._

_Anyway, I won't let this bastard (I can't believe I'm actually calling him like this!) leave me in a foul mood today. Not __**today**__. I'm too much looking forwards to the bright future for him to get me._

_I'm slowly getting stronger, even if at times - many times - I want to quit it all. It's just too hard. Only a promise made to me a while ago keeps me going._

_Naruto will return and I will be able to apologize to him for being such an ass towards him. God, I never knew how much I'd miss him. Naruto will bring back Sasuke-kun and Sasuke-kun will see me as a worthy shinobi, because by then I really will be one. Kakashi-sensei will also look at me one day and will be hitting his head in a wall for not noticing how much of potential he'd turned a blind eye on. I'll stop wanting to cry whenever I think of mum and dad and how they are at the other end of the village._

_Get a hold of yourself, Sakura._

.

But they don't go on a picnic the other day, or the other day after that. In fact, whenever they meet, they both seem too occupied for a morning outside of Konoha (as they both imagine the event).

If it had only been Kakashi's lack of organization skills, Sakura would have surely scolded him bitingly. But, as it appears, they both are too busy and that's it.

_._

_Mum and dad dropped by last night for a surprise dinner. Good thing they did because I was starving from Tsunade-shishou's unspeakably hard trainings and I really couldn't lift a finger to cook (even if I'm a really great cook... if it's at only a few dishes). We had a great time together but by the end of the night, dad was telling me again the two hundred and sixty five advices._

_I miss them. I miss Sasuke-kun. I really miss Naruto. I miss that bastard Kakashi too._

.

"Sakura?" Ino asks from next to her. "Did you hear me?"

"What? Sorry, I didn't," she says distractedly.

"You're worrying about Kakashi-sensei's mission again, aren't you?" the blond says, casually flipping through the pages of her medical text. Sakura looks up defiantly.

"Well, I can't help it!" she exclaims hotly. "If you knew the man half as much as I did you'd worry too! Kakashi's just _that_ careless and rash and - while quite _capable_, he is -" she stops as she sees Ino's inscrutable smile. "Oh, don't you _dare_ snigger at me like that!"

"I just think you worry about him so much that you forget about the rest of them," is all the girl says.

"What? What's _that_ supposed to mean?!" Sakura asks, bewildered.

"Nothing. Let's go back to studying."

"Ino! You're making me feel like Naruto! What was _that_ supposed to mean?"

Ino opens both of their books and looks at Sakura patronizingly. Sakura absolutely hates it.

"Shizune said that Tsunade-shishou would kill us if we don't hand her the homework about the different types of poison by tomorrow."

"Ino...!"

They return to studying. "Oh, and by the way, you need to go _out_, girl! Or go to the library and read a book. Chill out. You're starting to act like a spinster."

Sakura splutters: "S-spinster-!"

"Yeah," Ino interrupts before Sakura combursts. "So once we're done here, I'm taking you to a bar and enough on that!"

_._

_UGR! I quit! Tsunade is a tyrant and she absolutely hates me! Kakashi's a jerk and he has completely ignored me ever since Naruto left which is four months ago! He actually didn't even notice me when we were at the same street, did not 'yo' me back when I told him 'hi' and I know it's stupid but I really needed him at first. Mum and dad now seem very fine without me, thank you very much, and have decided to go on an year vacation in Suna..._

_At least I have Ino and Shikamaru and Chouji. Today we're going out, in the snow. It hasn't snowed in Konoha for a few years._

.

The next time Kakashi enters through her window, Sakura _really_ is not in the mood. She has a _terrible_ case of PMS, her abdomen is in the kind of a pain Ibiki could only fantasize on inducing during his tortures, and she has already thrown up a couple of times because of said pain. On top of it, she has the flu - caught it from Ino during their night out - and she _sneezes_ and coughs and her throat is on _itching_ fire.

Basically, Sakura feels miserable, wants to crawl alone in her bedroom till the end of her painful life, swears off all men and curses Sasuke and Naruto and Tsunade-shishou and Ino at least a hundred times each. Ino - the most.

God help the person foolish enough to put himself in her way.

God help Kakashi Hatake.

"Sakura, what's -"

"Out!" she shrieks.

"What?" he mutters, confused.

"Leave me alone!" Kakashi looks entirely ready to do precisely that but stops at the last moment and - as if in bitter regret - he says:

"I'm sorry but I cannot do that."

After a few minutes of arguments and Sakura's yells and Kakashi's surprising bravery, Sakura is reduced to crying miserably on Kakashi's shirt as they sit on the couch while the man himself storks her back in small circles that make half the pain go away.

"This really wasn't supposed to happen!" Sakura sobs - and coughs in the same moment. "As a kunoichi I'm not supposed to be so... so _vulnerable_!"

"You're only a human, Sakura - it's okay to sometimes get weak-"

"But I _cannot allow _myself to be weak! Not anymore! And the blasted irony is that the more I think about that, the more I stress myself, the more it fucking hurts! And the pills don't work anymore because I've grown immune to them!"

"Why can't you allow yourself?" he asks.

"Because..." she is reluctant to tell him. "Because who'd want me when I'm so weak?"

Kakashi goes silent for a while. "Sakura... he really gave you quite the issues, didn't he?"

She only sniffs. "I know it's stupid - " -coughs again - "but..."

"You have to accept that you can't always be perfect. You can't always be strong. And if Sasuke thinks it, then he's an idiot with superiority issues."

"_Kakashi_!"

"What? It's true and I won't take it back."

Sakura is too tired to cry again but if she wasn't, she'd most probably do it.

"Stop _trying_. Stop _thinking_. That's your only fault, Sakura - you think way too much."

"I wish it was that simple," she says sadly.

"_It is_." And because she is so tired of fighting, and trying, and thinking, Sakura believes him and lets herself go with the flow. She feels as if an enormous weight has been lifted from her. To hell with Sasuke, she thinks.

This is the moment she lets go of him - if only because the pain of her PMS is so unbearable and made her rethink her priorities.

The moment Sakura stops fighting, the pain almost immediately goes away and all that remains is exhaustion.

"I'm going to sleep," she tells Kakashi. He helps her stand up and go to the bedroom. "And _God_, don't I look terrible!" She knows she does - her hair is sweaty and oily (she really hasn't been in the mood to shower while being with the terrible flu), as her whole body feels. She is in her most used and ugly but comfortable clothes, she has a few pimples... not really a pretty picture. Or smell, she thinks is desperation.

"You don't," Kakashi gently lies. "And it doesn't matter. It's only me, not the damiyo of the Wind country."

Sakura lets herself be soothed, as Kakashi tucks her in and this is the moment she realizes just how comfortable she is with this person. Had it been anyone else but her parents or Ino or him, she would have kicked them out in the blink of an eye. Even if it really was the damiyo if the Wind country.

And because it's Kakashi, she doesn't let him leave her and pleads him to stay. He does - he lies on the other side of the bed and looks at her with a cheerful and optimistic face. She regards him from beneath all the layers of blankets (he most probably only sees her green eyes).

"I want to get married, one day. And have kids. And read books. And lead a comfortable, cozy life. And have fun, whenever I want to. And become an amazing medic nin. And I don't want to stress myself anymore. And I don't want to pin after Sasuke anymore. " Sakura coughs (again).

"Then don't," he murmurs.

Life seems so simple now, after this torture.

_Well, look at it as a preparation for the real tortures._

"You are my best friend, Kakashi," she remarks before she falls asleep.

"And you are mine," he quietly replies after that, but the words soak into her dreams anyway and build a beautiful, simple, carefree, loving world.

It all means so much for her.

_._

_God, I still can't believe that Kakashi spoke to me today. We went to Ichiraku's and it was extremely awkward but at least he speaks to me now. I really, really hope we go out like this again. For some stupid reason or another, I am interested in him. Not in romantic way - that would be gross. In the kind of a way where I think I might actually become his friend. Stupid, isn't it? Kakashi would never let me in. Not in a million years._

_And I'm getting wa-a-a-y ahead of myself. Maybe today was a fluke..._

.

Kakashi lives in her apartment for the next few days, while she gets better. He isn't there all the time, of course - and she really, _really_ doesn't want him to be. After her decision to live separately from her parents, Sakura has become quite attached to her personal space. Plus, the man has a job after all, and a better social life than her (no matter how bizarre this sounds). But he comes home to her and brings her fruits and vegetables he has bought from the market and a few books she has previously shown interest in and Sakura feels happy.

Ino calls her every day on the phone and they talk for hours and Sakura feels deliriously happy.

Naturally, the fever and the bad case of PMS pass but her resolutions don't.

"We should live together," the idea dawns on her one day, as he packs his luggage (he is returning to his own apartment). "It'll be cheaper and we'll take turns in cooking."

"Lovely idea," Kakashi agrees. "But it would be too frowned upon by most of the people - too much of a trouble, as of now."

"You're sounding like Shikamaru."

Kakashi says nothing, but she understands him.

"I'll strike you a deal -" Sakura says instead. "After a couple of years you're moving in with me."

"Deal." They shake hands. "But why _your_ apartment, precisely?"

"Because yours is _tiny_, as you've said yourself. And mine is completely agreeable."`

_._

_IT WASN'T A FLUKE!_

_Things are __**really**__ looking up to me, diary._

_Tsunade-shishou is becoming kinder and I'm really starting to get good, slowly but surely._

_Kakashi and I crossed paths in the street and he greeted me. And a couple of hours later, when I went to Ichiraku's he was there and we had ramen together._

_I'm as happy as I could be with Sasuke-kun and Naruto gone._

.

"Happy birthday, Sakura!" Ino exclaims. Sakura looks at the people on her table - her best girl friend, Shikamaru, Chouji, Kiba, Hinata, Shino, Lee and Tenten. Neji dropped by for a few minutes, but he was busy (Sakura knows that he just didn't want to come, the introverted prat, and that Hinata made him - that girl could be quite bossy herself).

"May the youth be ever with you, Sakura!" Lee exclaims and Ino, Kiba and Shikamaru look at him oddly. Chouji is smiling quietly at her, Kiba is drinking and grinning at her at the same time, Tenten is striking a conversation with Hinata (doubtlessly about Neji). Akamaru is looking at her with the cutest puppy eyes ever and Sakura grudgingly gives him a piece of her steak.

"Thank you, Lee! " she says as she looks around the bar.

"Kakashi hasn't come," she remarks very quietly and only Ino hears her.

"Probably he thought he'd feel uncomfortable among all these idiots," the blond replies in the same manner.

Sakura mutely agrees and other than Kakashi's absence (and Naruto's and Sasuke's, of course), she can find no other fault in her birthday party.

_Next year, hopefully, everyone will be here._

When she returns home around ten, Kakashi is casually sitting on his favorite chair in the kitchen, drinking hot chocolate from her favorite red mug. A wrapped packet is sitting on the breakfast bar. Sakura knows what it is before she opens it (it's a book - from her favorite detective series - she has nagged him for weeks to no end about this).

"Thank you. I really appreciate it." She goes to him and hugs him.

"You're most welcome," he murmurs into her hair.

"And what do you want for your birthday?" she asks as she lets him go.

"You have five months to think of a surprising enough gift, dear Sakura."

Sakura smiles. She already has it all figured out and planned.

.

_I'm sorry for not writing sooner but I was very busy. Mum and dad returned from their vacation and I made them a 'welcome back' party at home. My old home, that is._

_I can't believe how much has changed during the course of an year._

_._

"Sweet miso soup of the gods...!" Kakashi exclaims blissfully as he inhales his favorite food from Ichiraku's. "Ichiraku," he turns to the cook, looking all noble and deliriously happy. "You are a genius. An angel, really. I think I actually _love_ you."

Next to him, Sakura chooses to remain quiet and silently eat her meal.

In the corner of her eye, she sees Konohamaru, who thinks he is sneaky enough for Sakura and Kakashi not to notice him. She throws a look at her friend, who appears not to know of the boy's presence (or his obvious intentions). Of course, she knows this isn't true.

In a second, Konohamaru throws himself at Kakashi but before he knows it, Sakura has caught his face and all struggle from his part is futile.

"I'm sorry, Konohamaru but I won't let you see his face."

"But _why_?" the boy asks, limbs swinging around uselessly. "I promised Naruto-nee-san that I'd see Kakashi-sensei's face before he returns! And he will return this week!" After a few moments he says, yielding: "Okay, okay! Just let me go!" The boy stops struggling and Sakura releases him. "Don't _you_ want to see what's behind the mask?"

She waves her hand dismissively. "I've already seen it and believe me - it isn't anything remarkable."

Sakura hears an outraged cry behind her.

Konohamaru's snot swells out from his nose in surprise, his mouth - agape, his eyes - widened in surprise . "You've _seen_ him?" he asks, as if it's the most extraordinary thing in the world.

"Yeah," she says, feeling exceptionally cool. "I've seen him during examinations. 'f course I've seen him."

Konohamaru looks at her in utter respect and awe. Behind her, Kakashi, who has suddenly lost all appetite, is still spluttering in indignity about her comment. "Unremarkable?! _Unremarkable_?!"

_._

_OH MY GOD!  
Today, during examinations, I saw what lies behind Kakashi's mask._

_I repeat: OH MY GOD!_

.

When they finally decide they both have the time for the picnic, it's much, much later and Sakura has to help Kakashi sneak out of the hospital for a couple of hours.

They go just outside of Konoha, in a pretty clearing full of speedwells and cornflowers. Sakura spreads a blanket on the ground while Kakashi waits, leaning on a tree for support. Then slowly, she goes to him and helps him sit down, ignoring his complaints and wails.

"Oh, shut it, will you? You're much better now," she tells him, not half as strictly as she intends to.

Kakashi doesn't say anything anymore and instead chooses to steal up to the basket and get himself a sandwich - with raspberry jam, of course.

"They're quite exquisite, Sakura. You're the best," he compliments. "After Ichiraku, of course."

Sakura smiles dryly and gets herself a sandwich of her own - with tomatoes, cheese, lettuce and ham, _of course_.

After they eat one more sandwich (with fig jam) each and drink some green tea with mint, Kakashi leans on the nearest tree and begins counting the clouds.

"You know, I really understand Shikamaru sometimes," he murmurs to her.

"I can see that," Sakura replies, opens her most recent romance book (she has it from five months and she is only at page eighty - but she can't help the fact that the main female character is mind-blowingly _dull_).

After exactly five pages, Sakura gives up with an almighty roar and angrily leans on Kakashi's shoulder. He pats her head distractedly.

"I always tell you to just give up on the stupid thing. Read Icha-Icha - great series." He sniffs and looks nobly. "The best."

"There has never been a book I've abandoned reading! And I've not fallen so low to read some cheap porn."

"Well..." Kakashi trails off absent-mindedly and looks back to the sky.

Sakura sighs and lets herself forget about the book, about Akatsuki, about worry - about everything but the positive thoughts and dreams and plans that this beautiful meadow inspires in her.

"I can sort of see where Shikamaru comes from too."

.

_So, I've really been busy. I'm sorry for not writing sooner._

_Naruto returned, but we haven't brought Sasuke back yet. We saw him a couple of weeks ago and I behaved like a stupid little girl in love again and that couldn't be further from truth. I think I'll always act like this towards him - he was my first love, after all._

_Something happened that made me want to write. Asuma Sarutobi was killed recently. Ino's sensei. She came to my apartment last week and cried her eyes out. See, she is a medic nin like me and she hadn't been good enough to heal the fatal injury. I know this will mark her for life. It sure as hell would have marked me._

_I can't help but think if it had been Kakashi... I'm not sure I would have lived through. Since last week I'm having nightmares and they just won't stop. And he's on a mission again and I'm worrying even more than ever._

_When I become a jounin, I'll ask Tsunade to appoint me as his personal medic nin during missions. I don't want to be left behind again. I hate waiting._

_Heaven knows I'm not from the patient ones._

_–Drunkard's Tale_–

Sakura half-sits, half-lays on the comfortable coach of her apartment that might as well be called Kakashi's most frequently used bed. The man himself currently lounges about the living room, clad only in boxers (without the mask too). Of course, as soon as she sees him, she stands up and all indignity and infamous rage break free.

"Ka- Kakashi Hatake, _what the hell _do you think you're doing?!" she squawks as he - quite comfortably and without minding her at all - goes to the fridge and gets himself a bottle of milk. "Have you got no shame?!"

He finally seems to notice her. "Oh, Sakura. I didn't see you, sorry." Sakura is too angry to utter anything other than unintelligent words and roars. "Well, you see - er... Last night I got a bit drunk - thank Genma's stupidity and horrible sense for pranks for that - and this morning I woke up in a company I'd rather not have woken up in."

Sakura blanches for a second. "Oh, dear God. Tell me it wasn't Genma."

Kakashi shakes his head and Sakura's infamous rage returns full force. For just a second.

"It was worse - Tsume Inuzuka."

"My _God_, Kakashi, how drunk exactly were you?" Sakura asks in pity, stands up and covers him with the blanket that has been folded in the one end of the coach.

"Enough, apparently. Oh, Sakura, what am I going to do? I'll be beheaded by her family and eaten by their dogs! My- " Kakashi wails and clenches the ends of the blanket dramatically. Sakura flinches.

"Do continue, Kakashi - I think I'm still not as thoroughly traumatized as I'd like to be."

"Oh, what do you know about trauma?" Kakashi asks as he woefully drinks the milk -straight from the bottle, Sakura remarks in irritation. "It wasn't you who woke up with memories of a naked, sweating, gaspin-"

"_Kakashi!_" Sakura is positively sobbing by now. "_Please!_ I don't want to know any more details!" A few seconds later, with utmost effort, she collects herself and tries changing the subject. "We have to concentrate on the mission we have today. It's bound to be really interesting - infiltration and fight and blood-rising tension and bandits in Suna..." Sakura looks at the clock on the breakfast bar. "... And we're late. Naruto and Sai are probably waiting for us. Most probably, by now, Naruto is choking Sai to death. "

"Strange," Kakashi observes. "It isn't like you to be late."

Sakura blushes in dignity. "I wasn't!" Then she realizes that there's no use in lying and blushes even more. "This is your fault actually! Your horrible habits are rubbing in on me!"

Kakashi simply smiles at her. "We aren't getting any earlier, Sakura."

"Oh, sod it," she growls and hurries to her bedroom. In ten seconds she is back in the living room and hands Kakashi the clothes and weapons (and the mask) she keeps for him for just in case. Then she promptly returns to her room to get dressed herself.

"Sakura, are you ready?" Kakashi asks a bit later, clothed and all.

"Yes," she mumbles. "Only..." She opens the door. "Do you think that the hat is appropriate? I found it just now, I'd lost it a couple of months ago... It was a gift from Tenten for my sixteenth birthday."

He pursues his lips in a smile. "It is decidedly not appropriate," is all he says as he puts on the mask. Sakura looks down in disappointment but by then it seems _Kakashi_ has already realized the worrying rate of their lateness and reminds her that they don't have time for a fashion show.

When Naruto and Sai finally see them, Kakashi and Sakura are three and a half hours late, Sakura is feeling extremely guilty and Kakashi shows no signs of ill feelings, especially remorse, as per usual.

On the way to the village they're nagged by Naruto's questions ('When did you two become friends, again?', 'Sakura-chan, why do you prefer to share tent with Kakashi-sensei and not me?', 'You haven't fallen for him, have you?', _'Why_ would you force me to sleep in the same tent as _Sai_?!') to which Sakura can't help but reply ('It doesn't matter.', 'Because I trust him not to be a pervert more than I trust you!', 'Don't be an idiot!', 'Sleep in the cold, if you'd like'). Naruto, alas, is not one to give up and proceeds with his questions ('How can you trust this Icha-Icha obsessed bastard not to be more perverted than me?!' and 'How can it be _cold_ in the _desert_?'), to which Kakashi decides to reply and put an end of the questions once and for all ('Naruto... shut up.').

The bandits are, of course, in a bar in Suna. Kakashi has esteemed that it would be better for them to blend in for a while and then attack suddenly, using the effect of surprise since team 7 is vastly outnumbered.

Naruto asks why are they doing a mission for Suna, not that he minds, and Sai insults his intelligence (among other attributes) for the hundredth time and tells him (for the hundredth time) that the bandits are Fire Country's rouge nins and that relieving Suna from them is a political move. Naruto in no way understands what he is being told and the rest of his companions give up on all explanation with a sigh.

Once in the bar, Naruto challenges Sai on a game of cards (he isn't good but the snarky fox decides that Sai is even _worse_, having spent most of his life away from all things human). Kakashi sits on the same (admittedly large) chair with Sakura, which suffice it to say that it isn't very comfortable - the chair is large, but not large enough for two behinds. He looks at the leader of the bandits thoughtfully.

"I never knew she was this pretty," he says as the woman throws a seductive smile at him. He smiles back at her.

Sakura snorts. "Wow, Kakashi, you sure get on your feet fast. I never knew that a man would need only fifteen hours to recover after an encounter with Tsume Inuzuka."

Kakashi nudges his shoulder into hers in a friendly attempt to cheer her up. "Oh, come on. Don't be so jealous."

Sakura coughs and attempts smiling mock-flirtatiously (it's hard). "Well, I can't help it - you're just so handsome and strong and dashing. What woman wouldn't want you all for herself?"

He smiles crookedly beneath his mask. "Aww, you _have_ me. How could I stand a chance against something as innocent and cute as yourself? I was doomed from the very start!"

Suddenly, Sakura feels a presence behind them.

"_**So, you finally admit to having an affair?**_" Naruto asks darkly, squinting his eyes at Kakashi and looming over their heads like a vile spirit.

After five minutes of violence that are not worth mentioning, Sakura and Kakashi continue looking around the bar.

"Let's get some drink," Kakashi brilliantly suggests.

"We're on a mission," she quietly hushes him. "We can't drink on a mission. Is alcohol and women all you think about?"

The look he gives her, oddly enough, is odd: "Sakura, we're in a _bar_. It would be suspicious if we didn't order a drink or two and only look around warily. Just look at Naruto and Sai - they are a perfect example on how to behave in such an institution." Sakura follows her friend's gaze and sees a half drunken Naruto and an even more serious than ever Sai. Making a note to self to give the blond a piece of her mind (doubtlessly, he is the one who is responsible for it all), she orders a bottle of sake from the nice-looking barman who is eying her lustfully.

"Kakashi, will you get your own chair now?" she asks bitingly.

"Why, Sakura?" Kakashi asks aloofly. "Does my close proximity bother you in some way or another?"

Sakura simply settles for a roll of her eyes (and a despaired look towards the ceiling - _'Why me?'_ -) and minds her own business.

Around two hours later, the leader of the bandits and owner of the bar, Kaoru Chiba, declares it a karaoke night and a few bimbos and canned up men decide to try their luck.

Not a really good idea.

Finally Chiba's seductive smiles seem to have spend and she directly comes to Kakashi.

"What's with the mask?" she asks, eyebrow raised.

"I've got a bit of a cold," Kakashi replies.

"Is it contagious?" Kaoru raises the lone eyebrow higher.

"No,"

"Oh. Good. Then why don't you come and drink with me?" She looks at Sakura. "I'm sure your little sister will manage on her own for a few minutes. This is a bar of repute."

_Riiight._

_...'Little sister'? Bitch._

"Of course," Kakashi chirps instantly and stands up. "Kuro-chan, you'll be fine, right?" he asks her, his lone eye twinkling merrily.

"Of course," Sakura replies somewhat stiffly and looks at the woman with badly hidden dislike.

And as if to make matters worse, the bastard of a man pats her head.

_Die_, she roars in her mind.

Sakura doesn't let her eyes stray from the couple and she is sure that Kakashi feels her ominous gaze accurately. After about half an hour, Kaoru says something to a seemingly drunk Kakashi that makes him nod eagerly. He stands up and goes to the scene.

_This is going to be amusing_, Sakura thinks, her good humor returning.

"Hello, good fellows," Kakashi greets the public. Sakura hears a crash behind her that she simply knows is caused by Naruto's utter shock. "I don't know what precisely to sing, but I'm sure you'd suggest something sing-worthy." _The man plays drunkenness to a perfection_, Sakura forces herself to think (he wouldn't be foolish enough to actually get himself intoxicated). This is precisely why she delightedly yells the name of a slightly vulgar song* she has once heard from Kiba and even Kakashi, a usually bar-friendly chap who is bound to know it, seemed taken aback.

But this does not stop him. He begins to sing. The people from the public drunkenly laugh - some in awkwardness, other - in sheer perversion. One particular not much sober male seems very offended by Kakashi singing the song.

"You're a very full of himself bastard, you know that? Why don't you get down to the rest of us, mortals, and let's see who's the better man!"

Kakashi looks at the man in disdain. "You're not worth my time," he says simply.

The man somehow manages to spit at him. This seems to convince Kakashi that beating the man into a mish-mash seems like a fairly good idea and he gets off from the scene and a fight ensues.

Sakura notices with relief that Kakashi's not half as drunk as he makes himself out to be - otherwise he'd have snapped the drunkard's neck in a second and blown their cover right away. Her doubt returns, however, when the drunkard throws her friend to the other end of the bar (towards her) and she catches him before he has dragged her down.

His face lightens into a dumb smile the moment he sees her. "Kura-chan, I love you so much," he slurs and almost loses consciousness. Sakura takes a tighter hold of his collar.

"Don't you dare faint on me!" she scolds him.

"Gimme a peck!" he leans to kiss her. Sakura averts her face and thinks _she_ will be the one who faints. From indignity. Her new best friend. Because her old one has drunk himself stupid and is currently unavailable.

"Go fight!" she encourages him and throws him back towards the other guy. Kakashi wakes up to the situation again and manages to avoid a blow in the stomach just in time.

People gather around the two men and begin making bets. Chances are, the bigger guy (not Kakashi) will win, they think. Cheers erupt as the big guy punches Kakashi in the face and the gray-haired man sways dangerously. He doesn't fall, however, and a new bout of cheers and boos follows.

Sakura orders herself another cup of sake.

You'd think that when a bar fight is raging on, everyone's attention will be on the men (or women) who fight. But as Sakura looks leisurely around, the handsome barman comes to her and begins flirting with her. Sakura feels slightly uncomfortable. She doesn't really have experience in this area. Her few attempts in love, flirt and all that jazz have failed _tragically_ and the only men she has come to be fully at ease with are her father and Kakashi. She looks around awkwardly, as he tries to sweep her off her feet (unsuccessfully - she hates it when men make open advances to her, always being one for subtlety - in love, not life).

She clumsily tries to flirt back but luckily, after several minutes of feeling like she is being cooked in a slow fire, Naruto notices her situation and comes to her rescue.

"Hey, that's my _girlfriend_ you're flirting with!" Naruto yells, throwing a possessive arm around Sakura's waist. This doesn't appear to bother the man much, so Naruto continues. "And see the guy fighting over there? The one who is currently beating the crap out of that particularly large fellow? _That's_ her _over_-protective brother." Sakura squirms at those words, for one reason or another and the barman suddenly loses interest in her. Good thing for him because at this moment an old, gruff man who appears to be his superior comes to him and starts yelling. The handsome barman gingerly tries talking back, but is shushed:

"Shut your mouth, you good for nothing slob! I knew your wrenched mother, I might as well be your father! Fact is, you're not doing what you're supposed to!..."

Sakura feels sorry for the boy.

At this moment however, surprisingly, Kakashi gives them the signal and the rest of team 7 know that the execution of their mission begins now.

Once they begin taking out the ones they know to be rouge nins, most of the common people who have only come for a drink or two, scatter. Team 7 is outnumbered seven to one but with their polished skills, the others simply don't stand a chance. The mission's a piece of cake.

They stay for the night at the Kazekage's residence and leave for Konoha on the next morning with a heavy case of a headache. At least Kakashi appears to feel some remorse over his stupid behavior and even makes her a lunch as an apology during their break .

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei, why didn't you prepare something for us too?" Naruto whines. It reminds Sakura of whenever Kakashi himself wants her to make him dinner as if her day was all sunshine and rainbows.

"The eggs weren't enough," Kakashi lies smoothly. "I'm afraid you'll have to settle for instant ramen, Naruto." Naruto doesn't seem to be too much sorry for the missed opportunity of eggs made by Kakashi, instead of ramen.

When they return to their village, Sakura's ears are greeted by unpleasant girlish giggles.

"My, _my_ - isn't that Kakashi Hatake, the famous copy nin?" one from the women hordes asks.

"It is! I swear he gets damned handsomer every time I see him!" another replies.

"I agree, he's fairly hot stuff." A third tries to act nonchalantly but the way she ogles Sakura's friend makes the girl want to hide him protectively behind her.

"I heard that once the mask goes down, he turns into a sex god!" Sakura feels the simultaneous urge to roll her eyes, laugh and choke.

"_My_, Kakashi, what do you do in your free time, except Tsume, that is? You seem to be pretty popular."

"I've no idea what you're talking about," he deadpans.

"Oh, come on!" she cheerfully persists. "I won't judge you," she promises. Kakashi sighs.

"It doesn't matter. I can assure you that none of these women matter. To me friendship is a thousand times more important than lust or love and none of them have yet managed to break through my walls the way you did."

"I see," Sakura replies after a second, touched by his words. "They only care to see what's behind the mask but they don't care to look underneath the underneath."

Kakashi throws an arm around her shoulder and hugs her close to himself. "Yes," he agrees. "You are completely right, my clever friend."

"_**Hey, Sakura-chan, Kakashi-sensei, what are you two doing?**_" Naruto's ghostly voice looms behind them sinisterly.

Sakura and Kakashi freeze and blanch.

Five seconds later, Naruto's ill-boding is dealt with (thanks to a half-scared, half-hysterical Sakura) but the feeling his words have awoken remains.

Sakura can't help but think that she and Kakashi are trading on stranger's tides.

― _The last verdict_―

Sakura almost feels sick. Of course, it is only to be expected in the situation she is in. She is going to try to persuade the Hokage to release Kakashi Hatake. It is bound to be hard: Kakashi really messed up, after all. But she would rather die than let him be executed without doing anything.

Her throat is dry as she walks the short distance from her apartment to the Hokage tower. Mutely, she goes inside and climbs the stairs without greeting any of the familiar faces she's bound to see. Not that she'd notice them anyway. Taking a deep breath, she knocks on that last door.

"Enter," the Hokage yells. Sakura goes inside without looking up to the village's leader.

"Hokage-sama..." her voice trails. What should she say? How should she begin? Damn it, she has not thought it through.

"What is it, Sakura?" the Hokage asks tiredly.

"I... I'm here to beg you to release Kakashi Hatake!" Sakura quickly says. There.

A short, awkward silence follows.

"You know I cannot do that," the Hokage begins in a tight voice. _Brace yourself Sakura, you knew this might be the answer. And don't you fucking __**dare**__ cry!_ "Kakashi Hatake is a traitor. Not only did he try to defect from Konoha, but he sold important secret information to enemy nins. The verdict for this is execution and even I can't go against the Elder's decision."

"You didn't even try!" Sakura cries. "And you didn't try to save anyone else! Konoha is in terror, because its Hokage is paranoid that everyone is a traitor! The prison is _full_, Hokage-sama," she finally ends, more calmly, composes herself. There is a short pause.

"Even if Kakashi had been close, he _did_ betray Konoha and you don't have an argument against this, Sakura. He is a traitor. You can't persuade me into releasing him."

"He only wanted to be free of this village! Was that too much? Is the need for freedom enough a reason for his execution? After everything Konoha has put him through?!"

"I will not have any more Sasuke Uchihas, Sakura!" the Hokage suddenly yells, fist punching an angry hole into the desk. Sakura flinches. The Hokage too seems to be shocked by such outburst and his eyes close for a brief second.

"You've changed, Naruto..." Sakura sadly remarks. Naruto raises an eyebrow.

"Well, war can do that to a person, Sakura." The coldness in his voice reveals to her just how frosted he has become inside. And God, how she loves her friend. She can't bear to see him this way.

"It was not the war that smothered the sun inside you, Naruto. We both know it wasn't. And I want you to know that I don't b-"

"_Don't_," his voice is broken and hollow. "Don't." And Sakura looks him straight in the eye, _really_ looks at him for the first time in two years and she sees that her cheerful, lovable, bright-as-the-sun friend Naruto Uzumaki is dead and on his stead Konoha is ruled by a tired, bitter man who shoulders the world itself.

"I'm pregnant," she suddenly informs. If he is surprised, he doesn't show it.

"I will still not release him."

"Is that your last verdict?"

"It is."

"I will never speak to you again when all of this is over, you do realize that?" she says, heart already breaking from this.

"I know," his voice comes even more soulless than before.

Sakura thinks, in one bright, angry moment -fuck it all- and exits the room with a bang of the door.

.

"_Kakashiiii_!" Sakura playfully tries to capture his attention, as he makes breakfast (she has bribed him to make it, for a change). "Will you finally tell me what's your problem?"

Her friend has been in a very somber mood all week.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Kakashi says, flipping the pancake over. "I actually feel very cheerful. Brightly happy. Joyously good."

"_Right_," Sakura says, disbelieving. "Is it because of Haru-kun?"'

Kakashi wordlessly flips the pancake over again but it falls straight on the floor. "Damn it," he mutters and bends down to get it.

"It _is_ because of Haru-kun! You're so cross because he asked me out!"

"_Why_ would I be cross about that, Sakura?" Kakashi asks, throwing the fallen pancake in the garbage bin next to the breakfast bar. He stands there, looking at it with a kind of a thoughtful and saddened expression, as if the fallen pancake represents himself. "You're a bright and lovely eighteen years old girl. Someone was bound to ask you out _sometime_. They'd have done so a lot earlier, I reckon, if you (or I, or Tsunade, for that matter) didn't always scare them away. And if I remember correctly, Haru Hinamori was very brave during the war. Surely you can't be as terrific to him as Obito Uchiha." He flinches, having just realized what he said.

Sakura doesn't feel angry at him for these words, strangely. She just feels some of his vulnerability and quietly goes to him, nudges him a bit and takes the pan in her hands. Kakashi protests for a full minute - no, he can manage to make breakfast, she really should let him, he is capable, et cetera, et cetera - but in the end, Sakura simply makes the pancakes.

Breakfast is silent.

The war has left a lasting mark on both of them. On all of Konoha, actually. The things they did, the things they _saw_ would haunt the realm of their dreams till the end of their lives. Sakura still feels her stomach drop, her abdomen ache dully at the memory of the war. How did she survive - mentally, not just physically - under those extreme circumstances she will never know. Sakura remembers feeling like an elastic being pulled too hard - any moment now and she would snap, she would break, she would stop and give up. She remembers how after the first few days of blood, severed limbs, moans, pleas, death -

She remembers thinking desperately: 'No more, please. I want to give up. No more.'

But she couldn't quite do that.

Sakura remembers the day Kakashi was brought to her, severally wounded - his eyes were dead and, for a brief second before checking him over, she had thought that he really _was_ gone. Her heart still aches at the memory of having to deal with other wounded shinobi. Other medics had saved his life then...

_Stop it. _Sakura takes a deep, shuddering breath. _Stop remembering_.

When Sakura remembers herself, she looks around and notices that Kakashi is gone.

From then on, though she doesn't know it now, the downfall of their friendship begins.

.

"I love you," she says simply. The words come out gut-wretchedly painful and her throat closes. "I love you, as everything a man could be to a woman." His eyes are down. He doesn't say anything. "Look at me," she demands. He hesitantly looks at her collar. "_Look at me, Kakashi!_"

"Give up on this, Sakura, you can't save me. I'm a traitor. I've already 'sold my soul'."

"All you wanted was to be free!"

"If you help me escape now, instead of injecting me with this poison, the Hokage will also brand you as a traitor. I'm not worth it."

She reaches for his face, inside his cell, and gently forces him to look at her.

"Let me decide what is worth fighting for."

His dark, dark eye (the other is gone), finally meets her two green ones.

"And what are you going to do?" he challenges.

"I'll run with you."

_Finally_. A spark of _something_ shines in the darkness.

.

"Sakura," Kakashi says urgently, "I need to talk to you, it's really important."

"I'm sorry, I'm busy," she says distractedly.

Somehow, Sakura never finds enough time for him these days.

"Sakura, I've just found-"

"Sakura!" Ino runs towards her. "An emergency!"

"Sorry, Kakashi, gotta go!"

She can't bear to look at him. If she did, he'd know and it would all be disastrous...

.

Green, misty. New land ahead. New horizon to look at. Her breaths can't come deep enough. Her feet can't run fast enough.

"Sakura-"

"We're almost there, Kakashi! Once we've crossed the border, we'll change our names, the Hokage won't be able to find us, we'll hide real good-"

"Sakura-"

"I'm already here," a somber, authoritative voice says. Her breath hitches.

"Naruto..."

.

A knock on her door.

"Kakashi, what-" But she suddenly shuts up because he kisses her. It's an angry kiss and his lips taste like blood. He's probably been fighting again.

_This is __**so**__-_

_This is everything you've always wanted, deep inside_, the voice of truth snarls at her and it's a bliss because it's true.

"Kakashi..." It's like something has burst free - passion, fire, something else, something hidden that she has always forced back and locked up.

Her hands find his neck and there's desperation and bittersweet sadness and relief.

"Why were you so cold?" he repeats over and over again in-between kisses and her heart breaks but his lips mend it.

"I was afraid," she tells him finally and hides her face in the warmth of his chest. "I was so afraid that I'd be broken again. I wouldn't bear it. Not if it was you. And you're always so elusive and I always worry that I haven't managed to really get to you-"

"Silly girl," he says, and the almost-ever-elusive man that she has quietly fallen in love with kisses her again. "You've always had me, one way or another."

.

"What are you going to do, Naruto?" Kakashi asks as Sakura tries really hard not to break into sobs.

Naruto is yet silent, and a tear falls as Sakura and the father of her unborn child await the final verdict of their destiny.

Heads or tails.

This is either their downfall or their freedom.

The question is: which would Naruto chose?

― _Graveyard's Tale_ ―

Sakura really can't quite believe her eyes. A part of her is scared for her sanity because let's face it - it is more probable that her tortured mind is only making up the man before her. Because Kakashi Hatake can't be real.

He's dead and that's it.

But it's not. He's not.

Sakura's body realizes the truth before her mind. She still ponders on the possibility of seeing a ghost and wondering why it's not so scary when a horrible, ugly half-gasp half-sob rips from the top of her lungs. Her legs begin carrying her even though her mind is numb and she doesn't really care if she'd move for the rest of her life or not.

Then Kakashi's arms embrace her and he's warm and he's here and he's her best friend and everything else and _God_ she has missed him so much, hasn't she?

"I thought I'd lost you," Sakura cries as he lifts her up and spins her around. "I _had_ lost you."

Kakashi opens his mouth to say something but suddenly everything fades to white and all is quiet.

.

"You're drunk."

"So what if I am?"

"This isn't how you should deal with grief."

"Then how should I?"

"Let me in."

"... I can't do that."

"Why?"

"Because there is nothing 'in' that isn't destruction and chaos. You'd lose yourself with me, trust me. I'm thinking for you out there."

"Well of course chaos and destruction would be the only things! You're drunk! What else do you expect it to be?!"

"I'm talking 'bout my fuckin' soul, Sakura!"

"I'm well aware of that! If you weren't drunk, you wouldn't be talking like this!"

"You can't know it."

"You're right, I can't! Because you're drunk all the time I see you. You're really set on stepping into Tsunade's shoes, aren't you?"

"Sakura..."

"I know you're hurting, Naruto, but so am I."

"Why do you keep trying to save me? _I killed him_!"

"...Because I don't want to lose you too..."

His face is white like the one of the man he had murdered.

"Sakura-"

.

_That's it_, Sakura thinks and closes her eyes. _I'm about to be killed by Sasuke Uchiha, the boy I had loved. Maybe I'll see Grandpa in wherever I'll go. If ninjas go to wherever the rest of the civilians go. That's bullshit, though. If we aren't together in death then is there anything that makes us like them?_

_Sakura, you're about to die, don't you have anything else to think about?_

_Oh, God, it's true. It's all happening so __**fast**__ and so __**slow**__. And I'm not getting any flashbacks of my life, so not cool._

_I should have kissed him. Kakashi._

_What? Why do I regret not kissing Kakashi Hatake? Do I -?_

And then she feels arms around her and he smells like cedar wood and he fights that bastard that had once been her love.

When all of this is over and he is shouting at her for being so stupid, she crosses the little space between them and kisses him.

Bit weird, they both agree and the rest of the week would have been terribly awkward if their friendship hadn't been as strong.

A lot weird, they both agree again and speak no more of it instead.

Not, Sakura's mind adds.

The next time they are both free, they go to his apartment and drink a bottle of sake.

They're strangely comfortable and Sakura, in a moment of utter contentment, lays her head on his lap and closes her eyes.

Kakashi stiffens for a minute, despite the alcohol in his system, but then he slowly starts caressing her hair.

_I wouldn't trade it for the world_, Sakura finds herself thinking.

"Sakura," Kakashi says softly-

All fades to white.

.

"I'm sorry!"

"Save it."

"Sakura-chan, I didn't want to do it!"

"Save your breath."

"I loved him as a brother, I didn't want it!"

"He's _dead_, Naruto! _Dead_! I realize you had to do it but give me some time alone to mourn him! Your face is not precisely the first thing I want to see." Then, more quietly: "...I knew he had to die."

"Sakura-"

"-But it doesn't ease the pain."

She looks at her white gloves and remembers them stained red.

.

The war ends and somehow they try to stumble through the ruins of their old life.

Kakashi and Sakura move in together and they celebrate New Years in the village, with their friends and colleagues.

While Sakura and Ino watch the fireworks, she overhears Shikamaru talking to her most recent boyfriend:

"I have to admit that somehow I'm finally confused," Shikamaru admits. "How did she manage to break through you?"

"She tried again and again, the noisy pestering woman," Kakashi says fondly. "I really-"

His next words are lost in the new bout of fireworks.

They are all so bright and blur in together, in her eyes.

.

"Sakura-chan" Naruto's voice is oddly frail. "I really wouldn't have made it so far without you."

Feeling a great rush of affection for him, she ruffles his hair and then promptly smacks his shoulder.

"Don't be a sentimental fool, fox boy. We have a war to attend."

He flashes her a brilliantly white smile and she knows that with him by her one side, and with Kakashi by her other, she can come out a winner from this.

.

Finally, Sakura decides to introduce Kakashi Hatake to Kizashi and Mebuki Haruno.

It is really awkward that during their two years of friendship she didn't have the guts to do it, but then again: first her parents were on an year vacation in Suna, and then... well.

Her mother looks very stern and Sakura feels very uncomfortable, especially when she insinuates to Kakashi that he has a hidden agenda for his friendship with Sakura.

When Kizashi threatens to gut her friend, Sakura not only flinches but drags the gray-haired nin out of the Haruno estate.

"Well," Kakashi says with a sigh. "That went well."

"I'm sorry-"

"Don't-"

.

That war changes everything. Amidst the chaos and the moral insanity, they find a small haven. In the few moments they selfishly steal for themselves, they find love.

.

She looks at the bright, bright moon that breaks her heart - it brings memories that scream a name, and they scream '_remember me'_ and '_how could you'_ and '_in another world maybe I could have loved you'_. And they scream at her because it is she who is screaming, inside herself.

_"I can't believe you've come this far, Sakura. I'd never have thought you could have it in you."_

_"__**You**__!"_

_"Naruto, no!"_

She senses as_ he _lies next to her.

"Remember when we kids?" Naruto asks wistfully, not really caring for her reply.

Sakura stiffens.

"I'm sorry, Naruto," she says, and her eyes are suddenly not entirely dry. "I always seem to have the knack of wounding you without wanting it."

He chuckles. It's not humorous.

"You do," the Hokage agrees. "But I will always forgive you. You're Sakura-chan," he says, as if it explains everything.

She doesn't deserve him as a friend but he seems to know she thinks this and gently catches her fingers in his.

"I'm worried about Kakashi," she suddenly finds herself telling him. "Ever since the war, he... there is a darkness inside him that scares me." Naruto opens his mouth to say something but she interrupts him. "I... fear that he will lose himself. Obito was a blow far too low for him." They remain quiet for a few moments, each with his thoughts. "There is a darkness inside you too."

Naruto chooses not to reply.

.

"Kakashi, you bastard! I saw you how you looked at her!" Sakura yells as she bangs the door of the apartment in his face. A moment later, Kakashi enters as well but closes it with a quieter bang.

"Sakura, you're being unreasonably jealous. Minako-san-"

"Oh, _Minako-san_, is it now?" she snarls.

"_Minako-san_ is a girl I had saved from bandits, a few years ago," he explains calmly. "She was just being thankful."

"I'm still not talking to you!" Sakura yells as she sits on the couch and huffs. "Even if she was just being thankful, not that I entirely _believe_ it, mind you, _you_ were still ogling her. "

"Sakura, I most assuredly was not!"

"I can't even believe..." she trails off at loss for words and looks at the orange wall.

Hmm, she needs to repaint it.

A few minutes pass and Sakura feels the warmth of Kakashi's body as he sits next to her.

"Sakura..." She stubbornly refuses to look at him.

He stands up and tries to come into her view. She looks away, closes her eyes and lifts her chin very high up with a pretentious-sounding _'hmp!'_.

"Sakura..." he begs. "Are we still fighting?" There is a grin in his words. "It was only the moll on her nose I was staring at, I swear!"

_Don't_, she snarls in her mind. _Don't!_

Damn it, her traitorous lips curve upwards.

_**Rawrr**__! I hate it when you know that I can easily forgive you!_

"You're forgiving me?" Kakashi hopefully asks. Sakura glares at him.

"_I am_," she hisses. "And don't you fucking dare look _smug_!"

"I vow," Kakashi says, attempting sound serious. For all of his attempting it doesn't work, really. "Will I get an 'I-forgive-you' kiss?"

"No."

"No?"

"Yes."

"So, it's a yes?"

"Agr, Kakashi, shut _up_!" She kisses him quickly.

He sits on the couch, throws an arm around her and brings her closer to himself.

"You know," he says quietly after a while. "We're actually pretty much the same."

"You've only figured it out now?" Sakura asks with a smirk.

"Well, no. I'm just remarking. Can't I make a remark without sounding dimwitted to you?" Kakashi asks sarcastically. She rolls her eyes. "We're like a coin."

"You're not improving my opinion on your brightness, you know?"

"What I _meant_ was that we're like two sides of the same coin. Heads and tails." He captures her wrists as he says this, and makes her lie on the coach. "And I'm top."

"Oh, really?" Sakura asks innocently, but her smile is anything but. She overthrows him so that she is the one lying on him.

"Well... My luck seems to have left me," Kakashi says ironically and kisses the hollow of her neck.

.

"Hokage-sama, there is something I'd like to report," Sakura says. "Ichiraku-san says there is a man who's been looking very suspicious, he has been asking ..."

.

"Let's g to Ichiraku's, Sakura-chan!"

"Ugr, do we have to? _Again_? I'm fed up with that place."

"But, Sakura- chan!"

"No."

"_Sakura- chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-_."

"Alright, alright!"

"_Yes_."

"But you're paying."

"Aww, this sucks. Do I have to?"

"Otherwise we're not going..." A pause. "Don't look so _depressed_, Naruto, for God's sake! We could split."

She feels blinded by his smile.

.

Sakura is on her way to the newly restored Yamanaka shop when she sees him. Of course, he'd be at the memorial. She wonders of all the things he'd probably be thinking now.

_Obito Uchiha._

She has noticed before that the name has been furiously scratched from the granite from some angry shinobi or another. Maybe even from a civilian. Perhaps from someone out of Konoha.

The whole world knows this name, after all.

_Kakashi... _

She doesn't have the courage to go to him and eases off her guilty consciousness by thinking that being by Ino's side on her first day at work after Shino's death is by far more important.

Which it is.

She sighs, makes a step and all fades to white.

.

.

"Sakura, what are you doing here?" Tsunade asks suspiciously as she opens the door of her house.

"Is it so dubious that I visit my old sensei?"

"Depends on the sensei you're talking about."

"Ha-ha. You have to finally accept it that Kakashi and I are together."

"I can't if I'm still kind of rooting for Naruto," Tsunade admits.

"Naruto is one of my best friends!"

"So was Kakashi!"

"I'm not about go from one best friend to another! It's terribly inconvenient and disturbing. And stop acting like my fairy godmother turned matchmaker. I'm not in love with him and he got over me ages ago. And now poor Hinata has finally found the confidence to try to win his heart and I'm so very proud of her. How could you even _say_ such thing?!" Sakura asks in shock.

"Well, I can't help it. Come inside, will you?"

"_Now_ you remember to ask me ," Sakura says as she goes.

"You're _so_ much like me that I am beginning to wonder if you aren't actually the daughter I gave for adoption seventeen years ago."

"You had a daughter?"

"...No."

"Are you sure? I am a pink-haired , green-eyed version of you. My _God_, I wonder if I got it from my father! I didn't know you had a _thing_ for pink-haired males."

"You've grown awfully irrespective towards me these days," Tsunade dryly remarks. "Just because you're the Head Medic in the hospital now, and you've acquired a sex life doesn't mean you should be so bold," her teacher barks. "I _am_ your shishou."

"Yes, Tsunade-shishou," Sakura instantly replies.

.

She has just returned from her B rank mission, tired, but she can't go home yet. She has to report to Naruto, who has become the new Hokage two months ago.

On her way there, she sees Kakashi talking to someone unfamiliar but thinks nothing of it.

She is more busy worrying about Naruto and the darkness that has settled within him.

.

The front door opens and Sakura looks up from the book she has been reading.

"Have you been fighting again?" she asks wearily, with a sigh. Kakashi says nothing and slowly, painfully, goes to the chair in the kitchen. Sakura goes to him, gets the ointment from the left cupboard and puts it on his bloodied cheek and lips.

He doesn't flinch.

"Kakashi..."

"Save it."

She doesn't have the heart to say anything.

.

"I'm worried about you."

"What?" Sakura looks up from the patient they are operating.

"Between Naruto and Kakashi, you are forgetting to think about yourself. They haven't been the only ones to have fought in the war, you know?"

"Ino-"

"They haven't been the only ones to have lost someone too," Ino interrupts her.

"But I only-"

"It's okay to grieve about him, Sakura. You had loved him. More than you cared to tell."

.

"I don't want to go out, today is a terrible day!" Sakura wails from beneath the covers.

"Sakura, it's only a bit rainy," Kakashi coolly replies as he slips on his jeans.

"It's doom!" the shaking covers tell him. Then she shows her face from beneath them. "Hide with me!"

"Sakura, you're acting like a child."

"We'll eat pancakes and watch TV and be secretively nerdish and irresponsible, is it so much to ask for this?"

"No - it's tempting. But I have a mission."

"What mission? Naruto didn't say anything about a mission last night."

Kakashi frowns.

"A mission," he simply repeats, a bit irritably.

"Mission," she huffs and proceeds to go under the covers once more.

Then he snatches the blankets away - much to her objection - kisses her forehead and whispers. "I love you. Please, please don't ever forget that."

It sounds too much like a goodbye and her heart does some strange motion that hurts.

"And I love you. So don't forget to return to me."

Something flickers in his one visible eye but he simply replies:

"I swear I'll never forget that."

Later, when she has fallen back to sleep, the bell rings.

She, having some strange premonition, wakes up with a pang of panic, hurries to open the door. It's Naruto.

"Kakashi's betrayed us," is the first thing he says, shocked.

"What?"

"We captured him on the border of the Fire Country. He had sold information to enemy nin. Sakura, you're also suspected and you will be taken for questioning. I don't believe you had anything to do with it, since it was you who'd given us the clue about Ichigo Momiji but the Elders..."

"Kakashi's a traitor?"

"I'm sorry," Naruto says as he embraces her. His body is cold. Cold like stone. Flat like a bench.

He releases her and she falls on her knees. Her vision blurs and all she sees is white.

.

"You bastard, why did you leave me? Tell me! You son of a-"

"I wanted freedom."

"Then you should have just said so! I would have left with you!"

"No, I didn't want to leave _you_. But you wouldn't have followed me."

"I _would_ have! I would have followed you anywhere!"

This is usually the moment she wakes up.

.

And now they stand where they are supposed to be. They are finally saying goodbye to someone who never should have been gone.

"Naruto," Sakura whispers brokenly and he catches her hand. "I never blamed you for his death."

"I know," her friend says. "I just wish I never had to say goodbye." If she hears the tears in his voice, she does not say anything. Sakura pulls him to her and tightly embraces him.

"We both loved him."

"We'll be the only ones who'll miss him," he mumbles into her hair. They stay like this for what feels like an endless moment and when they part, Naruto wipes away her tears with his thumb. She does the same with his. "Now I have to let you go too, don't I?" he asks sadly.

"What?"

"I have to let you go to Kakashi if I ever want you to be truly happy."

"Naruto..." she murmurs softly.

He laughs through his tears.

"I'll visit sometimes. Your kid will need a godfather after all, right?"

She throws herself into his unexpecting arms, although careful of her now overly big belly. "It most surely will!"

"Friends forever?"

"And ever and ever!"

.

The village is mostly consisting of civilians. It is very pretty and peaceful.

She runs through its streets - her breath catching, her eyes searching.

And there he is, idly walking -she recognizes his back.

"Kakashi!" she yells, her voice too high but it doesn't matter. He's here. He's here. She has finally found him. "Kakashi!"

His poise stiffens.

"Kakashi!"

As soon as he turns and sees her, her lover loses his balance - mostly from shock -and falls on his knees.

"Sakura..."

_–The Future's Tale?–_


End file.
